I saw a blurb somewhere maybe here that Van Dessel is out of business but the web site says they are going to a wider distrubution in 05' anyone have the scoop on this?

It wouldn't surprise me. There bikes started off really expensive (between 700-1,000 dollars) and the components are very cheap. I've seen them liquidated on Ebay for practically nothing. I picked one up and found the components rather on the low end. It was not a bad concept for a town bike and they actually offered a road bike using the same beach cruiser frame which didn't make sense to me!

I think the Van Dessel would have been a better bicycle than the Bianchi Milano because it uses 700 cc tires and actually had a front disk brake, clipless peddales with a suspension seat post. HOWEVER. The disk brake was cheap and the brake levels where a joke. The fork had suspension when it should have been chromoly. It was overall a good concept but poorly executed.

Its too bad, since my performance needs are fairly modest I was kind of excited when I saw their bikes online (after they had been mentioned to me here on bikeforum) very nice looking had what I was looking for rack and fender mounts, light weight etc. I like the semi cruiser type look with the curved top bar etc.

Seely, I blame you, 'cause I would never have known about them if you hadn't mentioned them to me.
I love the general look of the frame, any other similar looking bikes you know of? Well besides the Milano

Ok I found a thread on mtbr that indicates that Van Dessel was/is kind of a shoe string operation and that the people running it ran out their inventory for the yearadn want to come back next year. Between that tidbit and what the web site says I'm not quit sure what to think

My university cycling team is sponsered by Van Dessel. They told us a few months ago that they were going bankrupt. They've recently found people to invest in their company; therefore, they are back in business and will have a new product line "within the next few weeks". They will be ready to deliver 2005 bikes in February/March, one of which is an all carbon fiber bike.